No new cases in 45 districts of 23 states, Centre cheers 'positive trend'

New Delhi: Calling it a "positive trend", the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has said there have been no new cases of COVID-19 in 45 districts across 23 states in the last 14 days due to various measures taken at the state and district level.

India reported 957 new positive cases in the last 24 hours on Saturday, which is 119 lesser than Friday's figure of new cases in the same time period, the ministry added. Currently, 408 districts are in the grip of Coronavirus.

Notably, the tally of total confirmed cases climbed to 14,792 and with 36 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the nationwide COVID-19 toll reached 488. With 248 new patients discharged in a day out of total 2,015 recoveries, the country's recovery rate improved from 12.7 per cent to 13.6 per cent on Saturday. Maharashtra reported highest 3,323 confirmed cases out of which 331 have recovered and 201 died, followed by Delhi 1,707, Madhya Pradesh 1,355, Tamil Nadu 1,323, Gujarat 1,272 and Rajasthan 1,229.

Giving details about the COVID-19 free districts, Joint Secretary (Health) Lav Agarwal said: "I had already mentioned that in the last 28 days, there have been no fresh cases in Mahe in Pondicherry and Kodagu in Karnataka. These were the districts which had reported cases of COVID-19. In the last 14 days, no new cases have been reported from at least 45 districts across 23 states. Apart from the districts I had mentioned earlier, 22 districts in 12 states have also not reported any positive case in the last 14 days."

The districts that have not reported any positive case in the last 14 days include Lakhisarai, Gopalganj and Bhagalpur in Bihar, Udaipur and Dholpur in Rajasthan, Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, Thoubal in Manipur, Lohit in Arunachal Pradesh, Chitradurga in Karnataka, Hoshiarpur in Punjab,

Rohtak and Charkhi Dadri in Haryana, Bargarh and Puri in Odisha, Karimaganj, Golaghat, Kamrup Rural, Nalbari and South Salmara in Assam, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong in West Bengal, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. "If we continue to work at the district level and on the lockdown, we hope to get more such positive results," he said.

However, new cases have also been reported from four districts which had been COVID-19 free. "These districts are Nalanda and Patna in Bihar, Nadia in West Bengal and Panipat in Haryana," the official said.

Agarwal further added that the mortality rate in COVID-19 cases in India has been around 3.3 per cent, adding that 14.4 per cent of the deaths are from 0-45 years, 10.3 per cent between 45 and 60 years, 33.1 per cent from 60-75 years and 42.2 per cent deaths have been reported from among people aged 75 and above.

The ICMR said so far 3,72,123 samples have been tested of which 35,494 have been tested on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in its Central Delhi headquarters, the Markaz, has been linked to over 4,000 COVID-19 cases in the country, the government announced on Saturday. The Jamaat has been linked to 4,291 of the country's 14,378 Coronavirus cases in the country; nearly three out of every 10 cases.

But India isn't the only country in the world that has had to suffer due to Tablighi Jamaat workers unwittingly turning their sect into the country's virus super spreaders.

In several countries — mostly in South and South-East Asia — the Tablighi Jamaat has been linked to 3,000 more cases and counting.